JSWGAS Chapter 72

Oikawa Tōru decided to give Kokonoe Taka, who had deliberately teased him, the silent treatment for a year – of course, this was just a fit of pique. In reality, he wasn’t as sure about the idea as he let on: a year seemed too long. What if that guy got laughed at by others for not having friends? Wouldn’t that be too pitiful?

(When he explained his point of view to Iwaizumi, the latter rolled his eyes: “You’re the only one who would laugh, right?”)

So, Oikawa generously reduced the silent treatment to a month – he announced this to Iwaizumi Hajime.

To this, Iwaizumi Hajime responded: “…You’re a complete and utter bastard.”

“But that guy actually deliberately played word games to trick me! That’s too much!” Oikawa Tōru argued, “I almost really thought he was going to Shiratorizawa – bleh, bleh, bleh! What’s good about a place with Ushiwaka! Anyone with eyes would choose me, right! Choosing him means having no taste!!!”

“…Are you a high school girl? Stop making that annoying face like ‘my best friend was stolen so I’m going to get revenge.'”

Iwaizumi Hajime felt that Oikawa Tōru could only be so stubborn at times like these.

As he expected, Oikawa Tōru, who was saying “I absolutely won’t talk to Taka for a whole month!”, couldn’t even make it through the first week. He awkwardly snuck over when Kokonoe Taka invited Iwaizumi to the gym.

“To be honest, I’ve pretty much forgotten how to play volleyball.”

“You can just learn again.” Iwaizumi replied curtly.

“…Iwaizumi, you’re so reliable.”

Since he had decided to play volleyball with them, Kokonoe Taka, who always had high initiative, packed up his house in Aoba Ward, completed the necessary procedures, and then arranged to meet Iwaizumi Hajime at the gym, asking him to teach him how to play volleyball.

The holidays were coming to an end, and the school day was just a week away. It was said that there would be a festival in the evening. Therefore, the area around the gym was particularly lively these days. Young people in groups of twos and threes passed by them, giggling and laughing. “…” Kokonoe Taka and Iwaizumi Hajime looked at each other, their gazes lingering behind him, a moment of subtle silence. He pointed behind him, “…Um, shouldn’t we do something about that?”

Iwaizumi raised his eyebrows and turned his head to look. His eyes quickly caught the suspicious figure wearing a hat and mask who hadn’t had time to hide.

Iwaizumi Hajime: “…”

He fell into the same subtle silence, and if you looked closely, you could vaguely see blue veins of anger popping out on his forehead.

“Wait for me.” He instructed briefly, and then strode aggressively toward the suspicious man. For some reason, the latter had attracted several red-faced girls during this time, and his ability to attract attention put even roses to shame.

“Well, as for contact information…” the suspicious man said with difficulty, anxiously craning his neck toward the entrance of the gym. But he was horrified to find Iwaizumi Hajime, with a dark face and murderous aura, walking toward him –

“Whoa!” He hurriedly darted behind the girls who were pestering him, holding down his hat, “Help me block him! Please, please!”

“Trash River!” Iwaizumi Hajime, blocked by the girls who hadn’t even reacted yet, suppressed his anger and shouted, “Get out here! What kind of man hides behind other people?!”

The suspicious man – Oikawa Tōru – saw that he had been exposed, so he simply gave up and replied, “Iwaizumi, your expression is too scary! You’re definitely going to punch me if I come out! I don’t want to!”

Iwaizumi Hajime choked. He was indeed planning to give Oikawa Tōru a few punches to wake him up.

It had to be said, Iwaizumi Hajime didn’t look like a good person. Black short hair, a fierce expression, and fiery eyes. The gaze he swept over was full of oppression, a stark contrast to the handsome young man behind him who drawled and looked innocent.

One of the girls swallowed, suppressed her fear, and stood up with her chest out: “W-what do you want to do?!”

Iwaizumi swept a glance over. “Eek!” The girl was frightened by his fierce gaze and couldn’t help but take a step back.

Oikawa Tōru: “Iwaizumi, don’t deliberately scare girls!” Adding fuel to the fire, “That’s terrible!”

Iwaizumi Hajime: “…”

His fist hardened.

But he really couldn’t just push past them and drag Oikawa Tōru out. The latter also understood that Iwaizumi couldn’t do anything to him, and the expression on his face became even more arrogant. But that smugness didn’t last long. When he saw Iwaizumi Hajime taking out his phone, it was replaced by panic.

“–Wait!”

Iwaizumi Hajime calmly clicked on a name on his contacts list and dialed: “Taka,” he said, his voice too calm, which only made it seem even more terrifying, “Trash Oikawa says he wants to see you.”

“I didn’t say –”

Iwaizumi Hajime held up his phone and roared: “Then why did you follow us like a stalker!”

“I just happened to! I just happened to be coming to the gym! Can’t I come?!” Oikawa Tōru stuck his head out and shouted, “Who would stalk a stupid Iwaizumi who tried to pet a stray cat and ended up being rejected by the cat and looking all dejected!”

“…You scum –”

Iwaizumi Hajime flew into a rage, pulled a water bottle from the side of his backpack, and threw it. The water bottle accurately hit Oikawa Tōru on the forehead.

“Oww–! That hurts!”

A few minutes later, Kokonoe Taka stood in front of the two of them, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. He looked at Iwaizumi Hajime’s livid face and slightly red ear tips, and then at Oikawa Tōru’s deflated expression and the obvious red mark on his forehead, “So, what happened?”

Oikawa Tōru preemptively accused, “Iwaizumi hit me with a water bottle!”

Iwaizumi Hajime: “Don’t you know why I hit you?!”

Oikawa Tōru: “How would I know! Could it be that Iwaizumi is embarrassed because I exposed him for trying to pet a cat on the way here and being rejected by the cat, so he got angry?”

–This frivolous tone made it clear that he was doing it on purpose.

He was this kind of malicious guy who was good at stirring things up, his personality was so bad that every word Iwaizumi Hajime used to scold him was like a portrait of his person. Kokonoe Taka quickly grabbed Iwaizumi Hajime, stopping him from actually rushing over and beating Oikawa Tōru half to death, and asked with a headache, “Did you follow Iwaizumi here?”

Oikawa Tōru, however, was very confident and righteous in admitting it, unlike his vehement denial in front of Iwaizumi Hajime earlier: “Without the supervision of the great Oikawa, what if you guys slack off?”

He said eloquently, “And Iwaizumi is the gorilla type, he definitely can’t teach people well! In the end, it will still be up to the great Oikawa –”

“…If you say that again, I really won’t be able to stop Iwaizumi.”

…

…………

The two-person team added an uninvited new member and became a three-person team. With Oikawa Tōru around, Kokonoe Taka could indeed learn more about volleyball more quickly. But even though he understood this point, Iwaizumi Hajime used 200% of his strength when demonstrating to Kokonoe Taka by spiking Oikawa Tōru’s sets, nearly smashing the floor.

…Looking at his eyes, it was possible he wanted to smash Oikawa Tōru’s fluffy brown head more.

Oikawa Tōru was startled by the murderous gaze, and honestly continued his explanation, “…The basic court and rules are these. As for the positions, Iwaizumi is the wing spiker, the main attacker on the court, and the main scoring player for defense and counterattack; the middle blocker mainly focuses on blocking and quick attacks, covering the teammates’ attacks; the libero cannot attack and is responsible for the first pass and most of the defensive tasks–”

“As for Oikawa –” He paused, his tone still as light as ever, but it seemed like there was something else there, “He’s the setter.”

He quickly laughed again, returning to his usual frivolity: “But you don’t need to think about these for the time being – after all, Taka doesn’t know anything right now, his skills are a complete mess.”

Kokonoe Taka nodded without being moved, his fingers lightly pressing against the leather surface of the volleyball. His indifferent reaction made Oikawa Tōru a little dissatisfied. But soon, Oikawa Tōru thought of another bad idea, “I’ve decided –”

Iwaizumi Hajime, familiar with this tone, knew he was going to cause trouble: “I’ll teach Taka how to play volleyball,” Oikawa Tōru said confidently, “Taka should call me teacher, right?”

Kokonoe Taka: “…Huh?”

“Call me, call me!” Oikawa Tōru urged eagerly, “You don’t want to be taught to be a stupid gorilla by the gorilla Iwaizumi, do you? …Ugh!”

A volleyball hit the bullseye on the back of Oikawa Tōru’s head, he wailed and had to stop continuing to criticize Iwaizumi Hajime, “Why are you interrupting the great Oikawa’s teaching!”

“It was rash of me to let a rotten person like you teach Taka how to play volleyball.” Iwaizumi Hajime said with a dark face, “If you’re going to teach, then teach properly! If you talk nonsense again, I’ll clear out that head of yours that’s full of garbage!”

“That’s so mean!”

Under Iwaizumi Hajime’s watchful supervision, Oikawa Tōru had to hold his breath and honestly start teaching.

“—I won’t hold back, okay?” Even though there was a red mark on his forehead and his hair was messed up, Oikawa Tōru, under Iwaizumi Hajime’s merciless gaze, said it like a threat, or maybe just a normal joke.

“It’s not that easy to be with the great Oikawa.”

He smiled and suddenly lowered his voice.

Kokonoe Taka fearlessly met those deep warm-colored eyes that seemed to be able to suck people in. A certain impatient sharpness burned upwards along the outline of Kokonoe Taka’s cheeks, adorning the corners of his eyes, just like the excitement that was stirring in his eyes, making people dare not look directly at him.

“I’ll do it.”

He answered like a declaration of war.

…

…………

“…I say, would you like to explain why you were saying such cool things just now, and then you ended up hanging yourself on the net?”

Iwaizumi Hajime closed his eyes with a headache. Oikawa Tōru’s undisguised laughter served as a very present background noise, making people worry if he would choke.

Kokonoe Taka: “…”

He answered painfully: “I couldn’t control myself.”

Kokonoe Taka and Iwaizumi Hajime looked at each other, and they both saw despair in each other’s eyes.

Oikawa Tōru laughed even louder, like a flock of ducks squawking.

…Just like when Kokonoe Taka first started playing basketball and ended up shooting the ball with the hand shape of a setter, making a fool of himself. After getting used to basketball, as long as he relaxed, he couldn’t help but dribble the ball forward.

—The consequence of this was that he ran too hard and crashed into the volleyball net. The net was pulled down from the railing, bravely withstanding the bombardment. But it also got tangled up in half of Kokonoe Taka’s body and arms in a mess.

“T-to be able to get tangled up in the net like this…” Oikawa Tōru laughed so hard he couldn’t breathe, and had to add fuel to the fire, “It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say you’re a genius.”

Iwaizumi Hajime hurriedly ran over to try to save Kokonoe Taka from the net, but the more he untangled, the tighter it became. The final result could be considered an award-winning performance art piece – Kokonoe Taka calmly looked at the sky the whole time. He was no longer the inexperienced young man who would blush all the way to his neck because of a missed shot. –But this didn’t mean that Kokonoe Taka could continue to endure Oikawa Tōru’s continuous ridicule. Especially when Oikawa Tōru secretly took out his phone to try to take a photo with him to record his dark history.

He narrowed his eyes, maintaining his dormant posture. When Oikawa made a peace sign, squatted down next to him, and raised his phone without any precautions, he suddenly pounced forward – crash, bang, muffled groans, mixed with wails, “It hurts!! My head is definitely swollen! Why did you suddenly pounce over—”

Oikawa Tōru’s head hit the floor, and the back of his head, which had been sanctioned by Iwaizumi Hajime with a volleyball, experienced a second injury. Kokonoe Taka didn’t have it easy either, his arm cushioned Oikawa Tōru’s fall, and his shoulder and face were hit a few times by the latter’s flailing arms.

“You–”

Under Oikawa Tōru’s incredulous gaze, Kokonoe Taka was so annoyed that his ears turned red, but his expression remained unchanged. Perhaps his unease could be glimpsed from his gritted teeth, “If we’re going to lose face, we’ll lose face together.” He said it with such coldness and ruthlessness.

Oikawa Tōru: “…You weren’t like this before!! Who corrupted you!!!”

He was heartbroken and continued to struggle in disbelief. But his body was like a prey on a spider web, getting tighter and tighter, and in the end, he could only desperately face the fact that he had completely become a member of the performance art piece.

He was greatly shocked.

When the two distorted figures lying on the floor finally calmed down, the only survivor, Iwaizumi Hajime, silently stared at them—took out his phone, took a picture, saved it, uploaded it, all in one go, and even cautiously kept his distance to avoid repeating Oikawa Tōru’s mistakes.

Only Kokonoe Taka was still able to turn his head and block his face when Iwaizumi Hajime took the picture, but Oikawa Tōru was completely exposed to the flash—

“Iwaizumi—!” He cried out in grief.

Iwaizumi Hajime, having vented his anger, chuckled and felt refreshed: “You’ve got it coming, Trash River.”

Apart from the three of them, no one knew how they finally rescued the two dirt-covered fools whose combined age was probably less than five. It was just that the gym had more rumors from that day on. It was said that innocent passers-by accidentally saw a twisted caterpillar being pushed on the ground by a strange figure with a twisted face, and from time to time, it would let out loud wails – which could be said to make the listener sad and the viewer tearful.

This rumor, as one of the “Top Ten Unsolved Mysteries of the Gym”, topped the list for the next few years, which was truly gratifying, truly gratifying!